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It’s a Mad Men Anniversary

If you ready my Valentines post, you would have known there was a hint in there about Matthew’s anniversary present this year. And no one probably knew what it was because I was talking about earrings just about the entire time and because I’ve kept Matthew’s present tightly sealed in my head. Ok, not really. Five people knew about Matthew’s gift this year. My mom and Mary Ann, Sara and Robert (my brother in law), and Robert – Matthew’s dad. Oh…and the Pinterest community…so…actually a lot of people, but not Matthew. And y’all, he spent a week guessing and came SO close. He was so close that it put me in a bad mood all evening because I thought I hadn’t said anything that would lead him to guess his present.

Matthew and I have a tendency to wait until a show is several seasons in, before we start watching it and then we become addicted. Our most recent addiction – Mad Men – and I have a total love/hate relationship with it and Don Draper. I also started the series despising Pete Campbell, but have grown very fond of him recently. Matthew had mentioned wanting a bottle of whiskey so while watching an episode of Mad Men and contemplating what to get him for an anniversary gift, it came to me. Bar cart. So i turned to Pinterest for a little inspiration and found this lovely.

On my search, I found several that I loved, but if I wanted to give Matthew a bar cart, it would also need to be stocked. And from the prices I was seeing, that wasn’t going to be an option. So, while out with my mom and Mary Ann, I mentioned wanting to find some way to make a bar cart for Matthew. Immediately they looked at each other and said, “We have one for you.” What luck. Now, this particular cart will need a little tender lovin’, but it’s nothing I can’t handle…I hope. See that picture above, we’re going to channel all that beauty into the below cart for something lovely.

Unfortunately it is in Bellville, which means I wasn’t able able to refinish this beauty before our anniversary – and to be honest, I am not exactly sure what I am going to do yet. So for our anniversary, I gave Matthew everything he would need for a few drinks with friends and set it out.

While searching for the items, I had to do a little research. Some of it involved calling up my brother in law, emailing my father in law, and actually lifting several glasses to find the perfect old fashioned glass. In my humble opinion, it needed to have a good feel in the hand as I grabbed it, and it needed to feel substantial. Not heavy, but substantial. Oh – and it couldn’t cost a fortune either. I found the perfect glasses at Pottery Barn for ten bucks a piece. And for my hunny, I would have gladly purchased them. After mulling it over in my head, I had made the decision to purchase them. A week later I headed down to the local PB only to find that it was closed for the evening. Now, I could have waited until the next day to purchase them, but when I get excited about a gift, I get extremely impatient. So I thought to myself, “Well, I’ll just head into Bed, Bath and Beyond and see what I find,” not really expecting much. I was wrong. I found these glasses for about $2.50 a piece. They are slightly smaller than the PB glasses I fell in love with, but have the same weight and substantial feel. And for a girl whose husband has a tendency of breaking glasses, these seemed perfect and easily replaceable. And because four were the same price as one of the PB glasses, I also picked up some matching highball glasses for the same price. Eight glasses for the price of two…I’ll take it.

Other items on his future bar car include an ice bucket, two beer mugs, whiskey, gin, tonic and some monogrammed napkins. (Yes, I still have some left over from our wedding four years ago.) And you’ll notice the card I made for him…complete with our Mad Men characters. Matthew’s actually kind of looks like him. Mine? Not so much.

At the end of the day, Matthew said I nailed it. And then he told me that he knew what I was getting him. So much for trying to keep a secret. Better luck next year!